Are you an office animal? Do you turn into T-Rex at work?
We all know T-Rex- he has short arms, he can’t reach far and he moves his arms up and down in front of his body…. right?
At Praktis Partners we see a lot of people type like a T Rex, arms in the air, peck, peck, pecking the keyboard with enough force to kill prey.
The problem with T Rex typing is that the arms are maintained away from the body, there is no support and no opportunity for micro pauses (small natural breaks between words where the arms can rest on the desk).
The body must hold the arms up all day, loading up the neck and shoulder muscles. Usually the index fingers are the only fingers in use and the rest of the hand is held flexed in the palms while the index fingers peck and destroy.
The T-rex posture restricts blood flow to the lower arm and hand. Think about a kink in a hose and that’s what it’s like for the blood flow to the arm and hand when the elbows and wrists are kept bent.
Avoid being a T-rex by:
- Reducing your force on the keyboard, typing shouldn’t sound like tap dancing
- Aim for 90 to 100 degrees bend of the elbow
- Keep the wrists in line with the forearms
- Learn to touch type
- Rest the forearms between tasks
- Take a rest with the arms in your lap palm up when reading the screen or taking a break from typing
Try some of these stretches to avoid being a T-Rex at work
T-Rex fact: Typists who only use their index finger and a thumb occasionally may be more like T-Rex than they know because T Rex forelimbs only had two clawed fingers
Check out our great posters that you can hang around the office to help remind you not to type like a T Rex.
